Previously:

They were all bit startled when the maid suddenly dropped the tray in her hand, and it hit the floor with a clatter.

"… Are you all right?" Hope asked.

"What's wrong…?" Aladdin asked, puzzled by her odd reaction.

"Excuse me, that name just surprised me a bit." The maid said with a nervous smile. "Now that I think about it, that name isn't so uncommon. Your friend has the same name as a famous person in this country…"

"A famous person?" Faith asked.

"Right now, 'Balbadd's Alibaba'… refers to… 'Wonder Man Alibaba'. This country's number one criminal."

Chapter 36: His Name is Sinbad

"Fuaaa~~~" Aladdin yawned as he stretched in bed, having just awoken. "Good morning, Hope, Faith, and Morg-san." He greeted the girls while he rubbed the sleep from his eyes when he noticed they were already awake and sitting on Morgiana's bed with her, chatting quietly so they wouldn't wake him.

"Morning!" The twins greeted him, while Morgiana nodded.

"Though it's already noon…" Morgiana pointed out.

"Fufufu, I was so excited last night, that I just passed out from exhaustion." Aladdin said with a grin, hugging one of the pillows.

"Yes…" Morgiana agreed with a nod. They all had.

"Yeah, it's been a while since I've slept so well~!" Hope said with a radiant smile as she rolled on the bed, feeling completely refreshed. She had managed to sleep the whole night through for once!

"Last night was fun!" Faith said with a grin. Aladdin had brought Ugo out so he could enjoy the room for a bit too, and they ended up jumping on the beds and having a big pillow fight. "We should do that more often."

"It was a good that Morg-san and Ugo-kun didn't hit anything!" Aladdin said with a smile. "Now, ever since we became companions, Ugo-kun isn't nervous around Morg-san anymore!"

"Is that so…?" said Morgiana. "Um, by the way… about the conversation last night…?"

"Ah. About 'Wonder Man Alibaba'?" Aladdin said, remembering how the maid had told them that 'Alibaba' was famous as the leader of a band of thieves that was currently causing problems in Balbadd. "Thieves, huh… But I don't think Alibaba would do something like that. I'm sure it's a different person!"

"I agree…" said Morgiana.

"Yeah, he may be a penny-pinching money-grubber, but he's no thief." Faith agreed.

"Wow…" Hope said, sweat-dropping at her sisters description.

"But how will we find the real Alibaba?" Aladdin asked. "This is such a huge country…"

"We could try putting up some 'lost' posters?" Faith suggested.

"I think that would probably work a lot better if we at least had a picture of him…" Hope said, sweat-dropping. And it wasn't like they could just print a hundred flyers out in one go, like back home. "I wonder how much it would cost to have an add put in a newspaper…"

"Do they even have newspapers here?" Faith asked dubiously. Most of the places they'd been to so far didn't. A lot of stuff was still being written and copied by hand rather than typed and printed.

"Good point." Hope said with a sigh, resting her head on her hand. Someone really needed to invent the printing press here…

"You're stumped too, Morg-san?" Aladdin asked.

"Yes…" Morgiana answered regretfully with a nod.

"Man, it's all that band of thieves' fault that boats to the Dark Continent have stopped!" Faith complained, annoyed on her behalf. That morning, while Aladdin was still sleeping, the girls had gone around trying to find a boat for Morgiana, but there weren't any takers.

"…" Morgiana said, looking down. "What should we do…?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure Hope'll figure something out!" Faith said, trying to cheer her up.

'So it's all up to me…?' Hope thought as she sweat-dropped again, a little chagrined. "Some help would be nice, you know."

"Yeah… Since we promised the ojii-san from yesterday to eat together, let's ask him then." Aladdin suggested.

"Oh, that's a good idea." Hope said. "He seemed to know a lot about this country… Well, more than us, at any rate. What was the name of that group of thieves again?"

"The 'Fog Troupe'?" Sinbad said dubiously as he sat inside the royal palace. "What's that?" He asked the Saluja brothers.

"The cause of Balbadd's domestic problems." King Ahbmad Saluja answered. "They're a terrorist group that opposes the country itself… Nonetheless, those guys were originally but a group of about forty thieves from the slums… That is… about two years ago… they broke into the palace's treasury and pillaged it. With that as war funds, they also acquired power. Since then the political situation has been unstable, and those guys have been steadily gaining support. Now, it is said, their ranks have swollen and become a large family with a size of several hundred men! Furthermore, they have acquired knowledge of a strange black magic… They have become such a powerful anti-government force that the military can't control them anymore! They mainly attack noblemen's mansions and government trading ships… And, to make matters worse, they distribute the money and goods that they snatched away and hand them out to the people… causing people to view them as heroes!" he explained with a shake of his head. "The people are idiots." He huffed, picking his nose. "All their plundering and the theft of the national treasury does is cause us to raise taxes." Sinbad furrowed his brow slightly as he stared at him, and considered everything he had seen and heard since entering this country.

"You guys… have a bad reputation, you know." He said rather bluntly.

"Sh-Shut up!" Ahbmad snapped defensively, flinching in shock. "This is a big problem! Lately, a troublesome guy has joined their group! Honestly, what 'wonder man'!" he fumed with, dripping with sweat as a vein throbbed on his forehead. "If not for that guy, we would have…!" Ahbmad was abruptly cut off when his brother and deputy king suddenly clapped his hands over his mouth.

"B-Brother, that topic is…" Sahbmad whispered urgently, sweating nervously.

"!" Ahbmad said, covering his own mouth when he realized what he had almost done while his brother held a finger to his lips and quietly shushed him.

"?" Sinbad said, wondering what they were up to. "What?"

"Nothing!" Ahbmad responded quickly. "Anyways! It's that Fog Troupe's fault that trade can't be resumed! Why don't you go out… and do something about it yourself, Sinbad-ojii-san!" he said defiantly, making a face as he stuck his tongue out at the older man.

"…" Sahbmad said nervously, fretting in the background over his brother's rudeness.

"…" Sinbad narrowed his eyes slightly. These brats had a lot of guts talking to him like that when the two of them combined weren't even half the king their father was. "I see… So it's fine if I do something, right?" he said, standing up.

"!?" the two brothers flinched when he pulled out a knife and stabbed it into the table in front of him.

"Then I will go exterminate this 'Fog Troupe'." Sinbad stated seriously. "By myself, without any help from the army!"

"…!?" the brothers gasped in astonishment, paling in shock. "I-Impossible! Even is you're Sinbad-ojii-san!" they exclaimed.

"Wh-What should we do? Aniue…?" Sahbmad asked his older brother nervously once Sinbad and his retainers had left.

"… It's fine…" Ahbmad said with a frown. "At any rate, no matter what Sinbad does, trade won't be reopened with Sindria… The Fog Troupe won't just fall down without a fight, so it'll be a good bargain for us…"

Upon returning to the hotel, Sinbad immediately sought out Aladdin's little group and took them out to lunch in the hotel's restaurant.

"Uwaaa!" Aladdin exclaimed excitedly when the special dish he had ordered for the four of them to try arrived. Morgiana's pigtail shot up in excitement.

"It's so beautiful~!" Hope said as she and her sister eyed the first fresh seafood they had seen in half a year with sparkling eyes, trying not to drool to much. It looked like it had been prepared by an extremely skilled chef, and it smelled amazing!

"Don't be shy, help yourselves!" Sinbad told them with a smile and a laugh, extremely gratified to see such excellent reactions. "This is Balbadd's famous herb and butter-baked Eumera sea bream! The Eumera sea bream is only found in Balbadd's coastal waters. Its secret is that, even thought it's a sea bream, it has soft bones and is an absolute delicacy when eaten with vanilla! When I first traveled here, it was the most delicious cooking I had ever come across… That's adventure's charm!" He watched as the twins tried dipping some in the vanilla sauce and sighed blissfully with matching dreamy expression on their faces as it melted in their mouths. Sinbad's smile brightened. They had a really deep appreciation for good food. Morgiana and Aladdin were practically inhaling theirs. "By the way, I haven't introduced my subordinates yet, huh? This is Ja'far, and this is Masrur." He said, pointing to each of them in turn.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Hope, this is my sister Faith, this is Aladdin, and that's Morgiana." Hope greeted them with a polite smile. "Why don't you have a seat, too?" she suggested, since they had been standing the entire time.

"Yeah, take a load off!" said Faith.

"We're fine." Masrur answered.

"Thank you for your consideration." Ja'far said with a smile.

"Morgiana!" Sinbad said, getting her attention. "Masrur is a Fanalis."

"!" Morgiana gasped in surprise, perking up immediately.

"Did that surprise you?" Sinbad asked, smiling at her cute reaction. "Actually, yesterday he also noticed. Your eyes are exactly alike."

'Oh, now that he mentions it… They both have similar shades of red hair, too…' the twins thought.

"… Hello." Masrur greeted his fellow Fanalis with a small nod of his head.

"… Hello…" Morgiana said, bowing hers in return. This was her first time meeting another Fanalis ever since she had been taken from her homeland.

"Hello!" Aladdin said as he jumped up and ran over to the tall, muscular redhead to shake his hand, pulling Morgiana along. Faith got up to follow them, and Hope went with to keep an eye on her. "You're from the Dark Continent, just like Morg-san, right?"

"Yeah." Masrur answered.

"You're really huge, aren't you?" Aladdin said.

"I like me a man with muscles~" Faith said with a grin.

"Are you gonna get that big and muscular too, Morg-san?"

"Wh-Who knows?" Morgiana said a bit shyly.

"Girl's tend to mature a little differently than guys, Aladdin…" Hope said with a wry smile.

"Yeah, I guess that's true… Ah, but you're still not as big as Ugo-kun!" Aladdin told Masrur. "Oh, right, let me introduce you… to my friend!" he said, digging around for his flute.

"… So, what will you do?" Ja'far asked Sinbad, while their guests played with Masrur, pouring himself some tea as she sat down across from him. "You don't have a single piece of 'equipment' right now… so you can't accomplish that absurd promise from this morning. What will you do?"

"… I'll figure it out somehow?" Sinbad said with a shrug.

"Oi!" Ja'far said with a vein popping on his forehead.

"But, even if we're counting on a minimum level of damage from this internal issue, a couple of problems still remain." Sinbad said seriously. "I still owe Balbadd a debt…"

"…" Ja'far knew how important the late king had been to him.

"Sindria was founded on barren soil before left or right was understood. Balbadd's late king taught me a lot about trade. I'm truly indebted to him." Sinbad said solemnly. "It is a shame that person died. But I won't let my benefactor's country… I won't let Balbadd fall into civil war…" he finished determinedly with a smile just as Aladdin found his flute and blew into it, causing two giant blue arms to pop up behind him. Ja'far nearly choked on his tea in shock as it shot from his mouth across the table.

"!?" Sinbad said, quickly dodging. He turned to see what Ja'far was gaping at. "UWHOAH!! Amazing—!?" he cried out in astonishment when he saw the Djinn.

Since the sudden appearance of a blue giant had startled and upset many of the other customers, they had been very cautiously and politely asked to take it outside by the waiting staff.

"Aladdin… You're also a magi…!?" Sinbad asked, staring at the boy and his Djinn in astonishment.

"'Also'? Do you know another magi?" Aladdin asked curiously.

"Yes… I know another magi." Sinbad answered, patting Ugo on the arm to check how solid he was. "Though our relationship isn't the best…"

"…?" Aladdin and the twins sweat-dropped, wondering what he meant by that.

"… You're not an ordinary merchant, are you?" Faith asked dubiously.

"Just who are you, ojii-san?" Aladdin asked.

"I see… since you are a magi, I will reveal myself. I've hidden it until now, so please don't think badly of me. I am… Sinbad." Sinbad proudly introduced himself again, as if adding another syllable to his name should have explained everything. For a moment Aladdin's eyes widened in surprise, and Sinbad thought he had gotten through to him, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

"…?" Aladdin said, tilting his head slightly to the side with a look on his face that had 'does not compute' written all over it. He had no idea what Sinbad was talking about.

"Okay, and…?" Faith said, raising an eyebrow. There had to be more to it than that, right?

"'Sinbad'… huh?" Hope said thoughtfully. The first thing that came to mind was 'Sinbad the Sailor' from the Arabian Nights tales from their world, but that couldn't be it…

"What!?" Sinbad said, flinching in shock at their ignorance. Ja'far sweat-dropped. "Y-You don't know?" Sinbad asked them. Really?

"I think I've heard it somewhere before… Just where? I've forgotten..." Aladdin said, scratching his cheek a bit sheepishly.

"Yeah, I vaguely remember hearing it somewhere before…" Faith said, squinting, as she made an effort to wrack her brain for the answer.

"Go on! Go on! Please remember!" Sinbad urged them. "The legendary 'Sinbad'… Who has repeatedly sailed across the world's seven seas! The adventurous man! Who captured many dungeons around the world and even established a country, capturing a total of seven dungeons! The first dungeon, Baal! The sixth dungeon, Valefor! The sixteenth dungeon, Zepar! The thirty-Fourth dungeon, Furfur! The forty-first dungeon, Focalor! The forty-second dungeon, Vepar! The forty-ninth dungeon, Crocell! The master of seven Djinn, the high king of the seven seas. That is 'Sinbad'." He declared boldly.

"…" The twins said, staring at him in surprise. Talk about 'wow'! It would have been even more impressive if he hadn't seemed so desperate for them to recognize him.

"A-Amazing!" Aladdin exclaimed. "But, I don't really understand!" he said, sweat-dropping.

"What!? You don't understand!? Even though you're a magi?" Sinbad asked, flinching in shock.

"Our Aladdin's a little special…" Hope said with a wry smile.

"Yeah. There are still many things I don't understand." Aladdin said. "Things about Djinn masters and dungeon capturers I've only recently heard about. Ahh… But if it's 'Sinbad's Adventure Books', then I know those!" he said, suddenly remembering where he had heard the name before. It had been from Alibaba. "My friend read them to me!"

"Oh, yeah! That was a pretty interesting story!" Faith said when it clicked.

"I see! Well thank you!" Sinbad said, rubbing the back of his neck. That was something at least. "Those books were written by me!"

"Um, since you've conquered so many dungeons… you must know a lot a bout them, right? Can you explain how they work for us?" Hope asked. "We're very curious about that."

"Well, to explain dungeons… would take a while, so I'll teach you more about them next time." Sinbad promised. The twins and Aladdin exchanged a glance.

"Okay…" Aladdin said. "But, before that, I want you to teach me one thing.

"And what is that, Aladdin?" Sinbad asked.

"I wonder, what are magi? First, I want to know about myself." Aladdin replied.

"Mm. The first thing you need to know about magi is this: they can easily materialize a Djinn and continue to do so with a steady output of magoi. With the exception of magi, capturers' and other people's magoi would disappear in an instant.

"No, it also disappears for me when I show them too." Aladdin said dismissively with a shake of head and wave of his hand. "If I use my flute a lot, I get hungry and sleepy."

"Is that so? I see, so when magi use magoi, their stamina decreases? Interesting." Sinbad said, intrigued. "Still, compared to us normal people… you have an infinite supply of magoi."

"What is magoi?" Hope asked curiously.

"Magoi is… the energy rukh creates. Do you know about rukh? Sky, sea, earth, it exists in everything. Of course, it also dwells within living things. Using only the rukh inside of them, ordinary humans can produce a certain amount of 'energy' that can be used." Sinbad explained.

"And this 'energy' is magoi?" Hope asked.

"Yes. However, a magi also has unlimited use of the energy created by other beings… So, basically in addition to the magoi your inner rukh produces, you can produce an indefinite amount of magoi using outside rukh!" he told Aladdin. "They are loved by the rukh. Man… magi are seriously amazing!" looking at all the rukh around Aladdin, he didn't see how he could have thought the boy was anything less now. Aladdin looked like a small sun with so many rukh gathered around him, and the twins looked like two small stars beside him. "That's right…" Sinbad said, getting an idea. "Can I ask a favor of the amazing Aladdin?"

"What is it?" Aladdin asked.

"To tell you the truth, there is a certain battle going on right now, but… because of certain circumstances… Right now I do not have any metal vessels!" Sinbad confessed frankly, looking far too proud about it for Ja'far's taste.

"All seven of them were stolen from him." He chimed in bluntly, causing the twins to sweat-drop.

"Would you be willing to lend us your power, so we can capture the Fog Troupe?" Sinbad asked.